Chapter 168: The Age of Liberalism and Nationalism
"Haha...no."
-Metternich to the Nahua ambassador to the Reich
"We will not rest until the Kaiser accepts liberalism as legitimate...or dies!"
-Anonymous liberal
The year 1838 began just like any other year, but that wouldn't last for much longer. On 11 January, gold was discovered near Kuala Lumpur, in Provincia Indochina. Eager to make good use of the mines to jumpstart the imperial economy, Sigismund ordered a large propaganda campaign conducted to attract immigrants and potential miners to the city. A few days later, the Kaiser decreed that the minimum wage was to be increased to make sure Kuala Lumpur's new miners were paid appropriately. This action was met with fierce opposition from the Maximists, Habsburgs, and Angeloi, with the former faction proclaiming that they would repeal it upon seizing control of the Diet. In response, Sigismund ordered the Diet to be concluded and sent everybody home, with the offending Maximists arrested and put in prison until they repented for their crimes and were properly "rehabilitated."
In February, the ancient alliance between the Ming and Tran dynasties, already severely strained by the China Wars of the 18th century, was finally dissolvved after the Jiaqing Emperor got fed up with the Tran's attempts to increase their influence in the Ghaznavid Empire, which was designated by the Concert of Eurasia as a member of the Ming's tributary network. Padishah Ayla I had recently signed several secret trade treaties increasing her empire's relations with the Tran, but once the Jiaqing Emperor found out, he mobilized his troops on the Ming-Ghaznavid border and demanded that she annul her treaties and banish the Tran ambassadors. Faced with a Ming invasion, Ayla had no choice but to agree. The Jiaqing Emperor then discussed the matter with the Tran emperor, Tran Han Thuong, who confirmed the existence of the treaties. Enraged, the Jiaqing Emperor terminated his empire's alliance with the Tran.
Back on the other side of Eurasia, the Bureau of Economics completed the modernization of the Berlin and Frankfurt stock exchanges. Sigismund then ordered further reforms on market structure to increase farming and mining efficiency. In Sudafrika, more diamonds were found, causing yet another influx of immigrations.
On the other side of the ocean, diplomatic negotiations with the Fox broke down as Pierremaskin and his government shut out Roman diplomats, refusing to cooperate in the Concert of Eurasia. Knowing full well that rebuking Pierremaskin directly would lead to war, Sigismund resolved to let the matter slide, sending the Fox emperor a letter thanking him for his time.
More colonies in Sudafrika were brought under normal administration as more gold was found.
Later that month, word reached Sigismund that the Persians had been firmly placed in the Indian sphere of influence, with Samrat Chakravartin Prithivipala I hailing it as a major diplomatic victory for his empire. Although Shahbanu Gunduz I and the majority of her subjects resented living under virtual Indian rule, she had no choice but to accept or face invasion from all of Persia's neighbors. With the Shahbanu's "consent," Indian businesses and advisors flooded into Persia, overwhelming local businesses and practically bending the Persian economy to serve India. They were soon followed by Hindu missionaries who sought to convert the Zoroastrian Persians. While many Persians protested this violation of privacy, they could do nothing about it, as the Persian military and police were controlled by Indian or pro-Indian advisors.
On 1 May 1838, the Chongzheng Emperor, Wanyan Xiongying, reached the age of majority and was crowned emperor in the capital of Jinshan. His coronation was attended by millions of Fusang Chinese...as well as a man named Lin Zexu.
Portrait of Lin Zexu
Lin Zexu was a Confucian scholar-official hailing from Hongzhou, the second most populous Jin city. He was the second son of Bin Re, also a scholar-official at the Jin court. As a child, he was called "unusually brilliant" by his friends and tutors, and in 1811 he received a
jinshi degree after acing the imperial examinations. In 1837 he was appointed as governor of Hongzhou before rapidly rising through the ranks of the bureaucracy and gaining a position in the imperial court at Jinshan by the autumn of that year. His fondness of maps and geography led him to work with a colleague on an encyclopedia of geography, expressing frustration when he found he could not label the Ming, Jin, and Tran dynasties as all "China." This frustration intensified when he arrived in the capital and was tasked with ending a coffee addiction epidemic, which accidentally brought him into contact with pan-nationalist groups which advocated the idea of "Greater China," a unified Chinese Empire made up of the Tran, Ming, and Jin domains. He found himself agreeing with the nationalists' ideas and began publishing treatises advocating for Chinese unification, becoming well known within months. Many nationalist organizations made him their leader, allowing him to unify them into a single coherent Pan-Chinese nationalist movement, which became known as
Fuxingyundong (復興運動) - "Revival Movement." His followers were called "Hongshan," after the red shirts they wore.
The First of May saw the coronation of Wanyan Xiongying...and the first major Hongshan protest. Simultaneously with the coronation ceremony, Lin Zexu and thousands of Hongshan took to the streets of Jinshan, waving flags with golden dragon insignia symbolizing a united China and holding signs demanding for the three dynasties to unite under a single emperor. They all converged on the imperial palace, where they picketed in front of the boy emperor himself as he was being crowned. When the demonstrations threatened to boil over into violence, the newly crowned Chongzheng Emperor had to order imperial police deployed to break up the Hongshan.
Imperial intelligence took note of the Hongshan demonstrations that day and sent reports of them back to Berlin, where Metternich and Sigismund agreed that they were dangerous and had the potential to upset the balance of power established at Vienna. Not only would the Reich's principle ally in East Asia, the Tran, cease to exist, but a unified China could become hostile to Roman interests and have the manpower and resources to actively challenge the Reich.
Ignore the reference to Fuzhou
However, the Reich did not have much time or the resources to actively deal with the threat posed by the Fuxingyundong movement, for it had many problems of its own.
The protests in Jinshan sparked many liberal movements throughout the Reich, among them the dreaded Maximist movement. Angered by the economic situation and inspired by Lin Zexu, people took to the streets of random cities, demanding more rights and representation from the Kaiser. Many cried for "liberty, justice, and equality" along the lines proposed by the failed Persian revolutionary leader Eskandar Yinal, while more radical liberals demanded the abdication of the Kaiser himself and the creation of a republic. While Metternich and many prominent advisors suggested sending in the troops and police forces to crush the protests, Sigismund did not want to make martyrs out of liberals. He decided to negotiate with their leaders wherever possible and focus on other more important things, such as the economy. The states in the interior of Neu Rhomania were brought under normal imperial administration, while the Kaiser encouraged the development of the Reich's cottage industry, particularly in the city of Arta. The Kaiser also ordered the Bureau of Economics to formalize and modernize the insurance companies to increase tax efficiency.
On 11 June, the Triumphbogen, a monument to Sigismund's late grandfather, the renowned military general Nikephoros von Hohenzollern, was completed in Paris. Inspired by the First Roman Empire's triumphal arches, the new Triumphbogen displayed scenes of Nikephoros's many victories, ranging from his first battles in the Commonwealth Wars to his celebrated victories against Persian and Chinese troops. It quickly became a major tourist attraction for Gallia (Nikephoros grew up in Paris and studied at Paris's military academy), though it would constantly be overshadowed by the even grander Brandenburg Gates of Berlin, which were commissioned by Kaiserin Frederica Augusta III to commemorate the Commonwealth Wars, the centuries-long reign of the Hohenzollerns, and the Pragmatic Sanction.
Tax efficiency was driven even higher with the development of regulated buying and selling of stocks and the multitude of financial instruments, both of which were important in reforming and modernizing the imperial economy. That summer, a diplomat from the Alliance arrived in Berlin, desperately seeking aid from the Kaiser. The diplomat explained that Tawatinsuyu and the Fox, the Alliance's primary enemies, were negotiating an alliance with the goal of humiliating the Alliance yet again. Although Metternich and Sigismund did not approve of Emperor Pierremaskin I's Eimerican-nationalistic rhetoric or of Sapa Inca Tupac Amaru IV's refusal to withdraw settlers from the contested Para region (where Roman citizens from Neu Rhomania had settled), Metternich sent the diplomat back to Tenochtitlan empty-handed, proclaiming that centuries of Roman-Nahuatl hatred would not disappear in an instant.
The fourth major edition of
Die Zeiten was published on 14 July 1838. It was deemed significant for preservation in the imperial archives because of its many high-quality and appropriate stories, including the fall of the Triple Alliance from Great Power status, the completion of the Triumphbogen, and the premiere of the popular comedic opera
Zar und Zimmermann, detailing the exploits of Tsar Briachislav II as he journeyed through the Reich as a carpenter after getting lost during a Commonwealth War.
That same day, Sigismund ordered the minimum wage increased again in order to deny the Maximists propaganda and support while he ordered Western Mauretania brought under imperial control.
Revolutionary fervor, until now confined to Gallia, Anatolia, and Afrika, started to spread into the imperial heartlands of Germania itself. The city of Lucerne, on the border with Provincia Gallia, erupted in open rebellion, with citizens taking to the streets demanding more liberalism. With the budget cuts forcing the local legion to be disbanded, the city's authorities had no way to control the riots. The ideas of the revolution soon spread even closer to the capital, with Danzig's citizens succumbing to the seductive lure of liberalism and Maximism. Not even the discovery of more gold in Sudafrika could counter the revolutionary fervor.
Meanwhile, more colonies were brought under normal administration. Provincia Westafrika, on the border with Mali, was upgraded from colonial status to regular provincial status.
On Christmas Day, liberalism spread to the city of Smyrna, probably by some secret society. Realizing that cracking down on liberalism in such a populous city would only make the problem worse, Sigismund decided to overlook it and hope it died down after a couple years. It didn't, and when the Diet convened again on New Year's Day of 1839, Lublin's citizens turned to liberalism and rioted.
When a rich iron mine was discovered in the city of Graz, Sigismund realized that it could be used to help fix the economy and ordered that large-scale dangerous mining operations be conducted to get the ore out of the earth and into the markets as soon as possible.
However, just four days later, a more pressing issue arrived on Sigismund's desk. Tupac Amaru IV was still refusing to withdraw his settlers from Para, with Tawatinsuyuan and Roman settlements coming dangerously close to each other. On 8 January 1839, the tensions boiled over when a Tawatinsuyuan settler was killed in an argument with a Roman settler, provoking an international crisis.
The Concert of Eurasia was to convene for the first time in the hopes that this issue could be settled diplomatically.
